My thoughts on running everything from 5Ks to ultra-marathons

A once in a lifetime opportunity…? I hope not.

Christine Ohuruogu has been interviewed today – one year before the start of the Olympics in London in 2012 – about her thoughts as the Games approach. She told the BBC that she thinks that young people remain unengaged with the Olympics and that ‘”I think that is a shame and there is more that needs to be done over the next year to make sure we include our all young people.” Ohuruogu’s comments suggest she feels a key aim of London’s Olympic bid – inspiring more young people to get involved in sport, both at school or college – might not be met.’ You can read the article here. And I think she is wrong.

Actually I don’t think she is wrong, but I think there is a danger that the current set of political leaders think that by throwing a huge amount of money at the Olympics, they can turn an entire generation of youngsters from x-box playing, fast food scoffing couch potatoes into Olympians of the future. Sorry, but I just don’t think that works.

And I also think it is rather patronising. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of hardworking coaches and teacher and community leaders, some paid, some voluntary, who have tried for decades to get and keep kids involved in sport. My inspirational friend and mentor Charlie Dark set up the RunDemCrew to help others, and especially young people, discover the way that sport can be a power for good. He did not do that because there is an Olympic Games just around the corner, he did that because he realises the amount of work there is to do and it needed to start immediately.

So sorry Christine and Seb Coe and all the others who are responsible for what I am sure will be one of the most amazing events I will witness in my lifetime – the problems that we face in society, that sport can help to tackle, are not new – they are at least in part the legacy of under-funding in education and a general dismissal of young people for past decades and decades. And one two-week spectacle is not going to reverse the trend of young people losing the motivation for and interest in sport – only decades and decades of hard work and dedication is going to do that. So if the Olympics in 2012 is a catalyst for that, then great. But do not think for one minute that because you set up a few taster sessions and put on a good show next year, your responsibility to young people has been discharged. There is much, much more work to do.